i’m afraid i’m still hazy on the “gross income” issue. is “gross income” (in the special rule) different from “adjusted gross income” in the legislation? actually, this is a moot point for me now that the felloship issue is cleared up, but i’m still curious.

thanks again.

Earned income is all the taxable and nontaxable income you get from work. Include wages, salaries, tips, self-employment income, deferred compensation contributions to retirement plans, salary reductions in a cafeteria benefit plan, dependent care benefits, adoption benefits, educational assistance benefits, union strike benefits, statutory employee income, disability payments from an employer disability plan if you are under retirement age, meals and lodging that are for the convenience of your employer or due to military service and the clergy housing allowance if included on Schedule SE. Also include include earned income from a partnership or a farm. Do not include interest, dividends, pensions, annuities, Social Security, railroad retirement benefits, alimony, child support, jury duty pay, worker’s compensation, veteran’s benefits, welfare benefits, workfare payments, penal inmate earnings, unemployment compensation or disability payments after you reach retirement age or if you paid premiums for the disability insurance.

This income, plus social security benefits and disability benefits in special cases (defined in the calculator, scroll down), if greater than $3,000, qualifies you for the rebate. Scholarships and fellowships are included in the “educational assistance benefits” mentioned above, so yes, they are considered for the purpose of the “earned income” in the calculator.

Secondly, your *AGI* is checked to see if it’s over the limit of $150,000 for married-filing-jointly or $75,000 for other. If it’s over the limit, the rebate is reduced by 5% of the overage, eventually reducing the rebate to zero.

1. there are two prongs for determining a rebate-eligible “taxpayer” listed under SPECIAL RULE (2). the first is simply whether one has a “net income tax liability” as defined in the section. the second is whether “gross income” is greater than the standard deduction plus the exemption amount (or twice the exemption for joint returns). but what is this “gross income” (a term not defined in this section). did congress mean “adjusted gross income”? this is not entirely clear since elsewhere the revisions to the tax code refer explicitly to AGI. since either prong in this special rule is enough to establish a rebate-eligible “taxpayer” how did you deal with this second test in your rebate calculator, which only asks users to input AGI?

2. are taxable scholarships and fellowships “qualifying income” under the rebate rules? i’ve been racking my brains trying to figure this out.